Thanks to social media, citizen engagement has transformed crisis response approaches and made significant impact in on-the-ground first response efforts. This session will look at the emergence of the CrisisCommons, a self-governing grass roots organization which has held over 40 CrisisCamps in 6 countries to produce or aid in the production of a myriad of applications and projects which directly aided the Haiti crisis. Attendees will:

> Learn about the dynamics of successful partnerships between government, inter-government and NGOs to collaborate with CrisisCommons

> The historical development of the tool set and procedures, which were in place long before the Haitian quake

> How technology allowed near-immediate mobilization of relief efforts once news of the Haiti earthquake broke

> Lessons learned and best practices to implement to be poised to respond rapidly the next time a crisis breaks